In September Jaguar will celebrate its 75th birthday, but instead of sending out a save the date card or party invitation, the British marque has gone to somewhat greater lengths to notify its public of the impending milestone – and built a car.

It’s called the XKR 75 and is the first of a limited run of (no points for guessing this one) 75 such vehicles to be built, 20 of which will go to customers in the UK.

The biggest giveaways of this two-plus-two coupé’s makeover are ride height lowered by 10mm, 20-inch Vortex forged alloy wheels, plus a new front splitter, side sill extensions, rear diffuser and rear spoiler. Oh yes, and the graphics plastered over the Stratus Grey paintwork (a new colour for the XK).

That lowered ride height is part of a series of suspension upgrades developed by Jaguar’s legendary engineer, Mike Cross, unique to the XKR 75. Other changes for the 75 include increased spring and damper rates (the front springs are 28 per cent stiffer, the rears 32 per cent), new aluminium front and revised rear uprights and a fettling of the Adaptive Dynamics damper software to take a tighter reign on body control.

All sounds suitably tantalising, but what often happens when a manufacturer fits big tyres and firmer suspension to one of its cars is that tyre noise increases, ride comfort decreases and any severe undulations in road surface can cause the car to graze its chin expensively.

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To see if this is the case here I’ve brought the XKR 75 along to the fastest and bumpiest bit of road I know, and one famed for undoing some otherwise very fine cars. Against all logic, and despite a slightly busier ride than you’ll find on a standard XKR, the 75’s high-speed poise and body control is faultless. Not once over this grizzly stretch of road does the 1600kg coupé hit its bump stops or smash its splitter into the road below. Even bumps sharp enough to have you bobbing up and down in your seat don’t unsettle the Jag. I can’t think of another GT or sports car (to mention both is apt, so rounded is the XKR 75 that it transcends genres) that can pull off the same trick.

The other change Jaguar has made to this car is to increase power from the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 from 503bhp to 523bhp, while torque goes up 22lb ft to 483lb ft. Entirely unnecessary but good fun nonetheless.

Resultant acceleration is suitably giddy with all that power seemingly to hand at any point in the rev range. Squeeze the long-travel throttle all the way to its stop and the six-speed automatic gearbox kicks down in an instant, all the while provoking a sound from the new sports exhaust loud enough to suggest there is some rapid fire artillery hidden in the boot.

Despite this ability to deliver savage bursts of acceleration the XKR is also surprisingly nimble, with high levels of grip and traction combined with genuine steering feel, an ability to shrug off its weight when changing direction and brakes so powerful that an experimental emergency stop actually gave me a head rush. Forget Meow Meow, I’ll take this cat any day.

The price for joining this particular party is £85,500. Yes, that’s £10,000 more than a standard XKR, but for everything the 75 represents and for the remarkable feats of which it is capable you can’t begrudge Jaguar for having some slightly inflated monetary aspirations. September’s party is going to be a good one.